time

Howard DeVoto is 70 today

US 4x100m relay gold medallist (1968) and one-time world record holder Charles (Charlie) Greene has died age 76. Not A Scavvy pick.

Jim Bowen & Stephen Hawking both died on the is day in 2018, aged 80 & 76 respectively. Smashing, great.

Not a lot of people know that

I've added 5. Maggie Smith and 6. Michael Caine to my list; two of my favourites over the years that are still alive (I almost included Gambon as well but he's apparently not very well-known outside a very limited circle). Most of the actor-types I would like to have included are dead - Paul Scofield, Pete Postlethwaite, Patricia Hayes, Richard Harris would all have made it in the past.

Someone who's actually earned the title 'Sir'

It's @TQR's fault I'm playing it so ultimately, the blame lies there.

Words can not adequately convey how much I hate that bloody song.

Form-spotting opportunity. Purves, at 83, looks in remarkably fine fettle! Maureen O'Brien, 78, not so much, but probably still a few years left. Katy Manning, 75, is probably still fitter than me.

DL favourite, Super Gran herself, Gudrun Ure is 96 today.

60, 600 guesses even, I wouldn't have got that; the I was pretty certain it wasn't <spoiler alert> Diago Garcia though.

I've just finished Windswept & Interesting, Billy Connolly's autobiography. While a good read, not as funny as I expected, though I imagine if he were to read it audiobook-style, it would be! The last 6 books I've read have all been autobiography/memoirs, as is the one I'm currently on, and about 20 more in my "to read" pile, which is still growing and includes the one I bought today.

The Warks team I grew up with had some great players - Jameson & Kanhai as well as Amiss & Kalli, Murray rather than Humpage behind the sticks, MJK, Tom Cartwright (OK I'll stop now, its making me sound old). Incidentally, Humpage was one of the last coppers to leave the old Birmingham City Police (they changed to WM police shortly after) and rejoined after his first-class career ended.

I hope it wasn't very much!

Former Zambia president Rupiah Banda reported dead at 85.

Most of the names I would have included are long dead (some longer than others) so not sure I can come up with 20 straight off the bat, but I can edit as and when. I'm not saying they've shaped my life or changed it in any significant way, but these are living people that I want to live forever. 1. Bernard Cribbins; the older I got, the more I appreciated this man's output. 2. Dennis Amiss; my favourite player when I started watching cricket; I could have watched him bat all day (not against the Aussies though, for obvious reasons); 3. Katy Manning; if Jon Pertwee was 'my' doctor, she was 'my' companion. 4. Billy Connolly; how could you not? 5. Dame Maggie Smith; as a youngster I saw The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and have loved her ever since. 6. Sir Michael Caine; not the greatest actor, perhaps, but he's had some great roles in some of my favourite films, but the reason I like him is that many years ago, he was doing a Q&A session on a TV arts show (Omnibus?? South Bank Show??) and someone asked why he'd been in so many lousy films; his answer was (and I paraphrase) that he was an actor and that''s his job, he doesn't write them and he suggested the guy write a brilliant script and he'd act in it. See also his response to the Jaws: The Revenge criticism. 7. David Byrne; Got into Talking Heads early/mid-80s, just saw him duetting with Miley; still class.

Music Journo Gavin Martin dead aged 60. Not selected in DDP, not even by David Quantick's Showbiz Pals.

I've finished the 16 seasons of NCIS available on Prime (that's 378 episodes!). It's by no means a great show - but watchable enough for the most part. It's been interesting to see its development; what started off as fairly one-dimensional characters had to have back-stories built to give them motivation for later storylines, as well as giving the writes somewhere to go! Only a few more weeks until Better Call Saul returns, and we've already got Peaky Blinders & The Last Kingdom (& Killing Eve if you're sticking with it) to watch.

Mary Coombs, the first woman to be trained as a computer programmer for business applications dead aged 93. She worked on 'Leo', developed for J Lyons business applications shortly after WW2.

Latest news from the Coventry Telegraph. Recovery seems to be going well.

David Gentleman is 92 today

The time for a Stephen King thread was June 1999.

Someone's Twitter tribute; obviously thinks his back-catalogue dies with him.

To be fair, they do seem to attract the dimmest of the dim on Tipping Point. I know someone who purports to be a Manchester United supporter who had never heard of Frank O'Farrell. He's 2 years younger than me, thinks football began with the Premier League & Sky.

Never made my Rons team, strangely enough